Report calls on Canada to investigate domestic Muslim Brotherhood activities

Julie Wiener

TORONTO (JTA) — A new report says Canada should investigate the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The group’s aim “is to weaken and destroy the free and open societies within Canada and the U.S.A. from within and replace them with the heavily politicized views of … the Muslim Brotherhood,” according to the report, titled “The Muslim Brotherhood in North America (Canada/U.S.).”

Written by Tom Quiggin, an expert on terrorism and member of the Terrorism and Security Experts of Canada Network, the report raises concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood’s alleged ties to Canadian organizations, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Along with suggesting that the Canadian government hold its own inquiry, the report said it should also consider cooperating with a probe announced this year by British Prime Minister David Cameron into the group’s activities in the U.K.

The report says the Muslim Brotherhood’s goal in North America is to establish front organizations and eventually gain political power. The group is becoming “increasingly aggressive in its actions,” it said.

Quggin told the CBC that the threat facing Canadians is not physical as much as “cultural” and “political.”

The Muslim Brotherhood has tried to spread influence and raise money through domestic groups, which have “sought to systematically and repeatedly circumvent and break Canadian regulations and laws,” the report said.

“One of the points of this report was to say, ‘Hey look, this group exists, the amount of money they’re moving around runs tens of millions of dollars, they’re funding terrorist groups all over the place,” Quiggin told the CBC. “At a certain point we have to ask, ‘Do we want this behavior to continue?’ ”